1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an improved data processing system and, more particularly, to improved mechanisms for presenting multimedia data to users with disabilities.
2. Description of Related Art
Multimedia presentations rich in text, audio, video, and graphics are becoming more and more common on the Web. They include newscasts, educational material, entertainment, etc. Formats such as SMIL 1.0 can be used to create dynamic multimedia presentations by synchronizing the various media elements in time and space.
However, dynamic multimedia presents a number of challenges to people with disabilities and to authors of accessible content. Authors must provide alternative equivalent content to audio and video so that users with visual or auditory impairments may make use of the presentation. Text content is most valuable to users with a wide range of disabilities, as it may be rendered on the screen, as speech, or on a refreshable braille display. In addition, search engines may process this text content. While there is cost to producing alternative content, the effort may be reduced by using accessible authoring tools.
These alternatives to video and audio content must be synchronized with video and audio tracks. Alternatives that are improperly synchronized may be so confusing as to be unusable. Furthermore, a presentation may occupy multiple sensory channels (eyes, ears, and touch) in parallel. Any content, including alternative content, that is presented to a given sense must be coordinated to ensure that it remains intelligible when rendered with other content meant for that sense. Additionally, the very nature of synchronized multimedia—content changes without user interaction—poses an orientation challenge to some users with blindness, low vision, or cognitive disabilities. These users may still access a presentation as long as the author has provided adequate alternatives and players to allow sufficient control over the presentation.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an improved method and apparatus for presenting multimedia data in a manner that is readably understandable and appropriate to the particular disability or product limitations of the user as well as being synchronized to any other content being presented.